Chapter 6: Tense, aspect and mood

The sequence of durative events is marked with -ma or -mvrra, whereas the instantaneous event
that marks the end of the sequence is not. Such examples may have led Leeding (1989) to believe
that the -ma suffix represents imperfective aspect. However, this suffix is perfectly compatible
with perfective NP1 and P1 suffixes that mark atomic changes-of-state, as in several examples
above, and the following.
(70) Kembirra nvm-awiyebe-nv-ma mamawura. Kembirra yirrv-mungkulhvnga-mvrra
then VEG-enter-P2-ma VEG.sun then 1a-sleep.P1-ma
marrvnga.
VEG.sleep
‘Then the sun set. Then we fell asleep.’ (‘Mvrungkurra’ p28-9)
I propose that this skewed distribution follows from the hypothesis that the suffix is used by
speakers to express their perceptions. Complements of perceptions are often imperfectives or
statives, because one is seeing/smelling/hearing something as it is happening. The narrator only
specifically marks the durative (i.e. “imperfective”) events as his perceptions, and thus contrasts
them with the instantaneous changes-of-state. The aspectually neutral NP2 and P2 suffixes cover
imperfective aspect, so it is those that are most frequently accompanied by the -ma suffix.
6.7.1 -ma or -mvrra?
The -ma suffix freely varies with -mvrra, although the former is much more common. The choice
between the two also seems to be a matter of personal preference, as one of my informants (PW)
used the -mvrra variant more frequently than others (e.g. DL). Furthermore, the -mvrra variant
may have a slight tendency to appear sentence-finally:
(71) Yingv-m-adhakbadja-ngv-ma ying-alyvbarv-nv-ma anhvnga dh-akina
3f-VEG-crush-P2-ma 3f-eat-P2-ma NEUT.food 3f-that
yingv-m-adhakbaja-ngv-mvrra.
3f-VEG-crush-P2-ma
‘She crushed them [marruwayija(VEG) nuts] and ate them and kept on crushing them’
(Akarrikarra 1990, vol.10)
In other environments the choice is phonologically conditioned: preceding the LOC case suffix
-manja and the ALL case suffix -wa, only the -mvrra variant appears:
(72) a. Nvng-ambilya nuw-ambilyv-mvrrv-manja.
1-stay.P2 3a-stay.P2-ma-LOC
‘I stayed where they were staying.’ (JS2 p.98)
b. Nvng-andheeya arakba ebinu-wa angalya n-ingkilharrv-mvrru-wa.
1-look.NP2 compl.act NEUT.that-ALL NEUT.place MASC-fall.P1-ma-ALL
‘I look at the place where it has fallen.’ (Fieldnotes, EM, December 2008)
What we see here may be an inverse haplology rule: the long version of the suffix is used to avoid
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